---

Modern Description: Birthplace of Aristotle, the great philosopher and tutor of Alexander the Great. The city was founded in ca. 655 B.C. by colonists from the island of Andros. Down to the Persian Wars, Stageira was a free, independent and prosperous city. After the Persians retreated, it became a member of the First Athenian Confederacy, making an annual contribution of one talent to the allied treasury. In 424 B.C., during the Peloponnesian War, Stageira seceded and became an ally of the Spartans against Athens. Later, the city joined the Chalkidian League and in 348 B.C. it was captured and destroyed completely by king Philip II of Macedon. A few years after the destruction, however, Philip himself repopulated the city in return for Aristotle's, tutoring of his son Alexander. Yet Stageira never recovered its former brilliance and it is henceforth mentioned by ancient authors only in a few occasions, invariably in connection with the great philosopher. An enchanting later written tradition records that after Aristotle died, the inhabitants of Stageira transferred and buried his relics inside the city, in a place called 'the Aristoteleion', a large altar was erected on his grave, and an annual festival was instituted in his honour, called the 'Aristoteleia'.
The site of ancient Stageira lies on a small, beautiful peninsula near the modern village of Olympiada, in north-east Chalkidiki.
Recent excavations conducted by the 16th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities have brought to light part of the Archaic walls as well as the Classical fortification of the city, preserved in very good condition. On the low ridge between the two hills of the peninsula stands the Agora, political and commercial center of the city. It is dominated by a long, rectangular portico (classical stoa), an edifice in which the people of Stageira assembled for public debate. A complex of public storerooms and shops is situated to the east of the portico, in front of a paved road.
On the top of the north hill part of a temple dating from the 6th c. B.C. came to light under the byzantine enclosure which was built there about the 10th c. A.D. On the steep north-east side of the hill are the ruins of an archaic sanctuary and a series of storerooms and workshops, mainly of the Early Hellenistic period, built against the inner side of the Late Classical fortification.
The acropolis of Stageira occupies the large plateau on the summit of the south hill. The slopes of the hill are protected by the south section of the fortification through which runs the main water-supply conduit of the city.
Parts of houses have been discovered over the entire area of the ancient city. The steep terrain indicated the creation of stepped terraces on which building blocks or individual houses were erected.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagira_(ancient_city)
Wikidata ID: Q846127
Trismegistos Geo: 33930

Info: Odysseus

(Odysseus, Greek Ministry of Culture)

---